problem statement for ux case study

What Is a Problem Statement in UX? (And How To Write One)

What is a problem statement, and how do you write one? Look no further. We’ll show you everything you need to know in this guide.

The user experience design process is all about solving problems, but unless you define the problem, your design may miss the mark. This is why creating a problem statement for each project you tackle is so important. A problem statement, which can also be referred to as a POV statement or user need statement, succinctly sums up the problem or pain point users need you to solve with your design. 

By creating a problem statement, you ensure your team, including stakeholders and clients, are all on the same page about who you’re designing for, the problem you plan to help them with, and why it’s important. Ultimately, articulating these things through a well-considered, user-centric problem statement means your whole team will be working toward the same design goals.

In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about problem statements. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is a problem statement? A definition
• When should a problem statement be created?
• How to write a problem statement
• Problem statement examples

Ready? Let’s go. 

1. What is a problem statement?

A problem statement sums up the user pain-point or problem you’ll seek to solve with your design . 

A problem statement is an actionable summary of your user, their goals, and what you need to solve to meet those goals. It sets the course for your project’s user experience; however, it shouldn’t include anything about the design elements or user functionality you might employ to solve the problem. Instead, it should provide insight into why you’re designing the user experience to begin with. 

In other words, a user doesn’t need to be able to use two-factor authentication to get into a banking app, they need to be able to access their banking information securely. The problem statement should lay out the user’s need (secure access) but leave out any possible solutions (two-factor authentication), which shouldn’t be considered until further along in the design process. 

2. When should a problem statement be created?

Problem statements are created during the define stage , the second step in the Design Thinking process . This stage builds on the previous step, the empathize phase, in which you and your team perform user research to learn about the people who will utilize the product you’re designing, including their needs, desires, and challenges. Once you understand your users, you can’t move right into generating design solutions because you don’t yet have a specific objective for the user experience you’re creating. That’s what makes the define stage and problem statements so essential. 

The problem statement you create in the define stage will be your team’s guiding light in the ideate phase, and all the remaining stages, in the Design Thinking process.

Ultimately, you need to write a problem statement whenever you’re setting out to solve a user pain-point through design. So how do you go about writing an effective problem statement? Let’s find out. 

3. How to write a problem statement

There are several techniques UX designers employ to arrive at a succinct but well-thought-out problem statement. These include:

In the 4 Ws technique , you use the information you gathered in the empathize phase to answer the key questions: who, what, where, and why. Whether in collaboration with other members of the team or on your own, you will ask and answer questions that begin with the 4 Ws. This will enable you to describe who your users are, what they want, where they’ll use your product, and why their problem is important. For example, you could ask:

• Who : Who is impacted by this issue? Make sure to get specific by including information from what you know about users’ demographics, psychographics , personas, and other findings from user research.
• What : What is the problem? What are the obstacles users are facing? What are they trying to do? What will make the process less difficult?
• Where : Where will they be using the product? Is there a specific context in which the problem comes up? Is the issue purely digital or is there a physical component?
• Why : Why is this important? Why will users benefit from solving this problem? 

By asking questions based on the four Ws and brainstorming answers, you’ll be able to put into words the most important observations that came out of your user research, which you can then synthesize to arrive at a use-centric problem statement.

Much like the 4 Ws technique, the 5 Whys revolves around asking a series of simple questions, but in this case every one of those questions is “Why.” This technique helps you drill down on a problem to uncover its root cause by repeatedly asking a why question in response to your previous answer.

For example, perhaps during user research you discovered that a user named Jordan doesn’t have enough clothes to wear to work. Here’s how you can ask why to get to the root of their problem:

• Why doesn’t Jordan have enough clothes to wear to work? Because they don’t own enough business casual clothing.
• Why doesn’t Jordan own enough business casual clothing? They haven’t shopped for clothes in over a year
• Why haven’t they shopped for clothes in over a year? Jordan hates to shop
• Why does Jordan hate to shop? They get overwhelmed by the choices available
• Why does Jordan get overwhelmed by the choices available? Jordan doesn’t know what clothes will look best on them

The fifth question indicates that the cause of Jordan’s problem is that they don’t know what clothes will look best on them. As a result, your problem statement should focus on Jordan’s need for assistance to find the best clothes options when shopping.

While this technique is referred to as the 5 Whys, the number five is only a rule of thumb. In order to determine the root cause of a user’s problem, you may need to ask why more or less than five times. Either way, when you use this technique, you should stop asking why once your answers are no longer valuable in defining the problem.

Moreover, when using this technique, make sure each answer to a “why” question is grounded in a real world issue so you can reach a concrete conclusion about the reason for the users’ challenge. In addition, you may find that the answer to each “why” question has more than one legitimate answer. If this is the case, you should follow each branch of questioning because it could reveal your user has more than one problem they need help with. 

Fill-in-the-blank

In order to be useful, a problem statement must be brief, point to a user need, and help set a goal for the design of the project’s user experience. In order to ensure a problem statement captures those components, several UX professionals have created simple fill-in-the-blank formulas and templates that can be used when writing problem statements. 

For example, the Nielsen Norman Group’s Sarah Gibbons provides a simple structure for a problem statement that includes three components : 

These are then combined following the pattern: “[A user] needs [need] in order to accomplish [goal].” For example, if the user is a dog owner, your problem statement might be: “A dog owner [user] needs to spend more time playing with their dog [need] in order to keep him engaged and happy [goal].

Similarly, designer Dan Brown provides a worksheet for building a problem statement that includes several steps that end in a complete problem statement. The first step involves identifying a specific user. This user should be based on a persona or profile from the empathize phase of the Design Thinking process, and should include details about the job (trial lawyer, diner cook, college student) or role (parent, dog owner, sibling) that makes them relevant to the project. 

Next, taking the perspective of the user, specify three activities they engage in during the week and the reason each of those things is important. For example, a dog owner:

• Takes their dog for a walk because the dog needs to relieve himself.
• Plays with their dog so their dog can stay engaged and happy.
• Provides fresh water each day so their dog stays hydrated.

After this, take one of the three activities and break it down into the steps the user must take to complete the task, an obstacle they might encounter at each step, and how that makes the user feel. For example, if we expand on the activity of the dog owner playing with their dog, we might write:

• Find time to play with dog — busy with work — worried
• Give dog a choice of toys — dog has trouble choosing — bored
• Play fetch with dog — dog only brings the toy back half the time — frustrated

Finally, you can choose one of these three steps to develop into a problem statement based on the following formula: A [user] who feels [negative feeling] about [reason] needs to [step] but faces [obstacle]. So using the example of a dog owner, you can write a problem statement like: A dog owner [user] who feels worried [negative feeling] about their dog staying engaged and happy [reason] needs to find time to play with him [step], but is too busy with work [obstacle]. This template is a good starting point for helping you think through your users’ problems and, ultimately, arrive at meaningful problem statements. 

4. Problem statement examples

A problem statement is a way to explain the problems users need your UX design to solve and why. However, if it’s too broad, it will leave too many possible solutions open, making it challenging to arrive at the best one. As a result, keep in mind when writing a problem statement that it should be broad enough to allow for creative thinking and innovative solutions, but narrow enough that it can provide a direction for that solution. 

That said, there is no one right way to create a problem statement. No matter how you reach your final problem statement, it should be user-focused, which means it should begin with identifying a user and their need and include an idea of why they require that need to be met.

Here are some good examples of problem statements.

Problem statement from the user’s point of view: This kind of problem statement names a specific user and explains what they need from their perspective.

• I am a parent who wants to make sure my children don’t fall for scams on the internet, but I don’t know the best way to teach these skills because I can’t find high quality resources that explain the best way to do so, leaving me feeling uncertain.
• I am a young professional who wants to exercise regularly but I spend long hours at the office so I usually can’t make it to a gym before it closes, which frustrates me.
• I am a grandparent who wants to be able to easily see and talk to my grandchildren on a weekly basis, but I can’t because they don’t live nearby, which makes me feel lonely and disconnected.
• I am a single young adult who just moved to a new city where I don’t know anyone and don’t know where to go to meet people and make friends. As a result, I feel isolated. 

Problem statements based on user research: This kind of problem statement pinpoints a group of users identified during user research and states what they need and why they need it.

• Parents need a way to quickly and easily access high-quality information about teaching their kids how to avoid internet scams because currently it is hard to find resources about this topic, which leads to uncertainty.
• Young professionals need a way to exercise regularly even though they work long hours, making it frustratingly difficult to get to the gym before it closes.
• Grandparents need a way to easily see and speak with their grandchildren on a weekly basis even though they don’t live nearby so they won’t feel lonely and disconnected.
• Single young adults who move to a new city where they don’t know anyone need to know where to go to meet people and make friends so they don’t feel isolated.

Problem statements based on the 4 Ws: This kind of problem statement uses the 4 Ws technique to create a statement that outlines who has the problem, what that problem is, and where they experience it, and then explains why your solution should deliver a specific user experience to solve the user’s problem. In order to encourage brainstorming in the next phase of the Design Thinking process, you can state the last part of this kind of problem statement in the form of a question.

• A parent’s problem is that he wants to teach his kids how to avoid scams when they’re using the internet. How can we ensure he can get all the best resources on the topic he needs so he can avoid uncertainty?
• A young professional’s problem is that she needs a way to exercise regularly even though the long hours she works make it difficult for her to get to the gym. How can we give her an alternative option for exercise that will require no gym equipment and allow her to work out in her own time and space so she won’t be frustrated when she can’t make it to the gym?
• A grandparent’s problem is that they want to see and speak with their grandchildren on a weekly basis, but can’t do so in person because their grandchildren don’t live nearby. How can we give them a way to easily reach their grandchildren so this grandparent doesn’t feel lonely and disconnected from them?
• A single young adult’s problem is that she doesn’t know anyone in the new city she just moved to. How can we help her figure out where to go to meet people and make friends so she doesn’t feel isolated?

Problem statements using the fill-in-the-blank approach: For this kind of problem statement you can simply fill in the blanks in one of the problem statement templates provided in the previous section, such as this one: [A user] needs [need] in order to accomplish [goal].

• A parent of two needs to find high-quality resources in order to successfully teach his kids how to avoid internet scams.
• A young professional who works long hours needs to find a way to work out outside a gym in order to fit in regular exercise.
• A grandparent needs to easily see and speak with their grandchildren, who live too far away for them to see in person, in order to avoid feeling lonely and disconnected from them. 
• A single young adult who just moved to a new city needs to figure out where to go to meet people so she can make friends and no longer feel isolated.

You’ve likely noticed that some of these problem statement examples focus on specific design issues that may make up only part of a larger project. If you are tackling a large project, you’ll likely want to create an overarching “umbrella” problem statement that articulates the project’s overall objective and additional problem statements for each component of the project. 

In addition, if a specific component of your project is especially complicated, you may want to create a “parent” problem statement that describes a general goal along with several “child” problem statements that set sub-goals. However, this doesn’t mean problem statements should be created haphazardly. You should only create as many problem statements as are necessary to define the scope of your project.

Now that you know how to write a UX problem statement, you might want to learn more. If so, you’ll find the following articles useful:

• What is user research, and what’s its purpose?
• What is the UX design process? A complete, actionable guide
• What is product design?

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Writing problem statements in UX: Definition, example, template

Problem statements are an often neglected yet immensely important part of any UX/UI design initiative. After all, designers are not pixel pushers; they are problem solvers, and to effectively solve a problem, you first must understand which problem you are solving for.

A well-crafted UX problem statement can help eliminate ambiguity and focus your whole process on designing solutions that drive impact, not just look pretty. Let’s learn how.

What is a UX problem statement?

The role of problem statements in user-centered design, defining the user and their needs, identifying the problem and its scope, outlining desired impact and success criteria, next step: ideating solutions, ux problem statement template.

In simple terms, a UX problem statement, often called a user-need statement, is a brief and precise description of which problem you are solving and what you are trying to achieve. It serves as a guardrail in the whole design process.

When we start brainstorming solutions or dive deep into Figma and start polishing the interface, it’s often easy to get lost in the flow of things and forget which problems we are actually trying to solve, which inevitably leads to suboptimal solutions. The goal of a UX problem statement grounds us in user thinking and even helps quickly prevalidate solutions.

Problem statements are critical in each phase of a user-centered design process . At the empathize phase, it helps guide your research questions and capture the most important learnings.

It then helps you wrap up the problem definition phase, allowing you to synthesize your key learning in a digestible, shareable artifact. A well-researched problem statement then constrains and focuses your ideation toward solutions that have the greatest chance to move the needle, and later, you can reference it regularly when prototyping your solutions.

Problem statements are also an excellent tool for aligning everyone on the team, from UX researchers to UI designers to product managers. It’s a significant step toward solving the omnipresent design problem: keeping everyone focused on the same thing.

Components of an effective problem statement: A case study

There is no silver bullet for how to craft an effective problem statement. Various companies, designers, and managers approach it slightly differently. However, most of them have three things in common:

• Focus on the end user
• Strive to name the problem clearly
• Define outcomes the solution should achieve

I tend to structure my problem statements similarly. In this section, I’ll combine theory with sharing the story of how we used the UX problem statement to design a solution for marketplace sellers.

The first step is to understand who you are designing for. The most common trap here is to focus on generic users. I saw numerous problem statements saying we are designing for “company X’s user.”

The problem with that? Your product is most likely used by various groups and subsegments of users.

Whoever you are designing for, odds are the solution isn’t focused on 100 percent of your user base. Different users have different problems, needs, and expectations. Unless you touch a fundamental flow (such as the homepage), you are likely designing for no more than 20–70 percent of the user base.

Specificity is the key. The more specific your target audience, the higher the chance you’ll discover specific problems and low-hanging fruits. To better understand who you are solving for, you can employ various user discovery techniques:

• Exploratory interviews
• Ethnographic studies
• Qualitative or quantitative surveys
• Empathy mapping

Regardless of your chosen technique, I’d recommend having at least two interviews. Nothing helps build empathy better than a direct interaction with users.

We had a high-level objective of boosting sellers’ satisfaction in a pet marketplace. It already narrowed down our focus group to sellers, but that was still too broad a category to focus on.

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We started with a quantitative approach to spot whether there are any segments of sellers with the lowest satisfaction scores. To our surprise, our most frequent sellers were also often most dissatisfied with buyer quality.

We then proceeded with a survey and four interviews to dig deeper and see what they had in common. Turns out sellers had issues managing frequent in-product chats with prospective buyers. The volume was simply too overwhelming, and it took conversations with numerous prospects before closing a deal.

Based on that insight, we narrowed our user focus to sellers averaging more than 10 open chats daily:

I am also a big fan of mapping the percent share of users to better understand the size of the opportunity. It later helps prioritize the size of various opportunities.

Now that you’ve identified who you are designing for, go deep into the problem space.

Focus your research on your defined persona. If other users also experience problems with the chat feature, I’d recommend mapping it as a separate problem statement.

Nothing prohibits you from designing for two problem statements simultaneously, but you don’t want to confuse your insights across user groups. Ultimately, it’s better to fully satisfy one group of users than to provide a suboptimal solution for everyone.

Your persona identification exercises from the previous step probably gave you a sense of where the main problem lies. I’d treat it as an initial problem hypothesis. Follow up with problem identification exercises to further validate and refine that hypothesis by, for example:

• Conducting focused follow-up interviews
• Performing a root cause analysis or a 5 Whys exercise to uncover the source of the problem
• Mapping user journey maps to identify when the problem occurs and where it fits into the whole picture
• Holding usability tests to understand where users struggle with the current solution

Once again, there are various ways to capture the problem, ranging from robust one-pagers to one-sentence summaries. I found the sweet spot in quickly summarizing three main areas of the problem:

• What do users struggle with?
• When in the user flow does it happen? Is it seasonal or tied to any specific day/flow?
• Why is the problem worth solving? What pain points does it cause?

The what part gives you a high-level picture, the when part will help you focus your solutions better, and the why part gives extra context and helps with further prioritization.

We knew that the volume of chat interactions was the problem, but we wanted to dig deeper. We proceeded with an extra survey focused on chat interactions sent to our top sellers and an additional five interviews.

It turned out that although the volume itself is problematic, the biggest pain point is during weekends. Sellers reported a work-life balance issue since buyers’ interest peaked during weekends, and sellers feared that if they waited until Monday, they’d lose sales opportunities.

We mapped the problem space in the following way:

Answering all three questions helped us not only understand the basic problem, but also:

• Knowing that the problem happens mostly on weekends helped guide our thinking toward a weekend-focused solution rather than generic chat improvements
• Understanding why the problem is important for users later helped us with proper feature communication

Now that we know who we are designing for and which problem we are solving, we need to identify what we actually want to achieve. The truth is that each problem can be solved in many ways. Identifying success criteria will help you narrow the focus even further and maximize the chances the solutions will bring meaningful results for both users and businesses.

I recommend splitting it into two parts:

• User outcomes : How do we want to make the world better for the user?
• Business outcomes : How do we want to drive the business forward?

Don’t neglect the business outcome. You’ll have a higher chance of getting buy-in for the direction if you can showcase how the solution will help the business grow.

Let’s revisit our chat case study. The desired outcome is clear for the pain point of working during the weekend, driven by the fear of losing leads. Ideally, we’d like our sellers to have free time during the weekend without sacrificing the number of leads.

Let’s now look at the challenge from the business perspective. After consulting with the business owner, we learned that the ideal business outcome would be to design changes resulting in quicker transaction lead time (the time from the first interaction to finalizing the deal), as that is what the chat was initially designed for.

But since it might be extremely difficult to both reduce sellers’ work time during weekends and decrease the lead time, as a bare minimum, we won approval to go forward as long as we don’t harm the lead time, meaning we don’t delay the whole sales funnel. That gave us clear goals to strive for.

With a clear problem statement, we can jump into ideation exercises and start planning potential solutions. Although I won’t get into solution ideation in depth here, let me just share a few examples of how the UX problem statement can help you quickly filter and prevalidate ideas.

The whole ideation process was rather messy, but for the sake of example, here are two of the ideas we brainstormed:

• Letting sellers snooze the chat
• Creating an FAQ section for each seller

We could then use our UX problem statement to validate the idea quickly.

One solution was to let sellers snooze the chat. This solved the user problem of not having free time during the weekend. However, it doesn’t address their fear of not losing leads, nor does it contribute to our business outcomes. We concluded it would help neither from a business nor user perspective, so we killed the idea

Our other solution was to create an FAQ section for each seller. We assumed that the FAQ sections in the flow of starting a new chat could reduce the need to open a new chat. It also seemed the section could even lead to faster lead times (no need to wait for chat answers to get the information the buyer needs), and the FAQ section also works on weekends! We kept it on the list of ideas to pursue.

Although the problem statement itself didn’t tell us which solution was best (we had ~40 ideas in total), it helped us quickly narrow down the list of ideas and guide further direction.

On the other hand, if we had just a loosely defined problem without any deeper understanding, how would we know that the chat snooze option wouldn’t work? We could spend weeks designing and implementing it just to figure out it doesn’t solve the right problem since it wasn’t the distraction that was the problem, but the fear of losing leads.

A UX problem statement gave us both a quick and informed prioritization tool. It was faster than deeply debating each idea and way more precise than choosing on the merit of gut feeling-driven dot votes.

If you’re interested, we ended up introducing and iterating on the FAQ section, which reduced the number of chats by about 30 percent and slightly improved the lead time. It didn’t fully solve the problem, but it was a great first step.

If you’d like to use the same template I used when showcasing the buyer-seller chat story, here’s the link to a UX problem statement template .

Click on File, and then Make a copy to create your UX problem statement.

Closing thoughts

I won’t lie to you: crafting a solid problem statement is a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. However, it’s still a drop in the ocean compared to investing in a solution that doesn’t solve underlying user and business needs.

A well-defined UX problem statement leads to these outcomes:

• Better insights from more focused user research
• More creative and specific solution ideas
• The ability to prevalidate ideas quickly

Most of the designers I’ve met who never used problem statements (or any similar alternatives) always had the same answer: “We simply don’t have time.” I hope this article showed you that problem statements actually save time by having a more focused process and helping you choose better solutions.

If you have a manager or a client who pushes you to jump into Figma and start producing hi-fi solutions as soon as possible, try sharing this article with them to open the conversation. As tough as it is, educating stakeholders is also part of the designer’s job.

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Problem statements in ux discovery.

August 22, 2021 2021-08-22

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Running discoveries can be challenging. Many teams start discovery research with little direction as to what problem they want to solve. When this happens, discoveries meander and result in dwindling team and stakeholder morale. Worse still, some discoveries begin with investigating solutions, rather than the problems those solutions are intended to solve. (Remember: if you’re investigating only solutions in a discovery, you’re not doing a true discovery! )

To avoid these issues, spend time upfront to identify and frame the problem . If you don’t know the problem, you’re not going to have much luck solving it! The better a problem is articulated, the easier and more effectively it can be solved. One device that help teams to frame a problem is a problem statement.

In This Article:

What’s a problem statement, how to write a problem statement, problem statements don’t need to be negative, how to use problem statements.

Problem statement: A concise description of the problem that needs to be solved.

It’s a helpful scoping device, focusing the team on the problem it needs to explore and subsequently solve. A problem statement makes clear what needs to be done in discovery and what’s out of scope. Problem statements are also great communication tools; well-written ones can be used to gain buy-in from stakeholders on why it’s important to explore and solve the problem.

Here are some examples of problem statements.

• Users of our newspaper app often export content from our app, rather than sharing content through our app. This is a problem because target audiences are less likely to know that the content came from our app, leading to lower conversion rates. This is also a problem for app users, as exporting content is time-consuming and could lead to a decrease in app usage.
• Sales reps spend a long time planning which leads to visit each month. Because planning is done manually — using Excel spreadsheets and printed paper lists — sales reps find it difficult to meet their targets. Many have complained that keeping track of which leads to visit takes away from the time they can spend with them. This is a problem because, when targets are not met, the business risks losing revenue.
• Each year, many applicants call the contact center seeking an update on their application. Applicants often spend a long time waiting to speak to an agent. Because contact-center staff members lack access to case information, they are unable to answer queries from applicants. This situation causes frustration for both applicants and customer-contact staff and represents an avoidable cost to the department.

It's a good idea to write a problem statement as early as possible in your discovery, as it can help set discovery goals and objectives. Many teams will compose their problem statement in a discovery kick-off workshop.

A problem statement should include:

• The background of a problem. Which organization or department has the problem and what is the problem? Why has the problem arisen? Note that in some cases you may not know the exact causes of the problem. This is what discoveries are for: to uncover root causes. (In this case, you may add this aspect once you’ve done your research)
• The people affected by the problem. There could be multiple user groups affected by a specific problem in different ways. In the problem statement, you should call out how the problem affects users. In some cases, internal employees (particularly customer-support staff) can be affected by a problem, as they often bear the brunt of poor user experiences –- for example, by handling disgruntled customers.
• The impact of the problem on the organization. If the problem is not fixed, what will be the effect on the organization? Reputational damage? Paying unavoidable costs? Losing out-of-market share? In some cases, you may want to quantify the impact in order to convince your organization to fix the problem. Your discovery could involve working out how much this problem costs the organization, and this information could end up in your problem statement.

To gather the relevant facts for your problem statement, you can use a simple technique called the 5 Ws , which involves answering the questions below. This activity can be included in a discovery kick - off workshop with your team and stakeholders.

• Who is affected by the problem?
• What is the problem?
• Where does this problem occur?
• When does the problem occur?
• Why does the problem occur? Why is the problem important?

If you don’t have all the answers to the above, don’t panic! While you should know what the problem is, you may not know exactly why it came about. This is what your discovery should tackle. Throughout the discovery process, you can return to your problem statement and add to it.

It’s important that problem statements are written well to serve their purpose. A problem statement should :

• Not be a laundry list of unrelated problems . A discovery effort should have one problem statement, and the problem statement should be focused on one problem. Of course, a single problem could cause further problems, and those related problems can be added to your problem statement. But listing many unrelated problems is a sign that you’re tackling too much.
• Not contain a solution . Leave solutions out of your problem statement. At the beginning of discovery, there are too many unknowns, so the the best solution is not obvious. At the end of your discovery, you’ll be in a good position to confidently put forward solution ideas that address the problem and take into account what you’ve learned.
• Be brief . Problem statements are effective when they’re concise. If you can condense your problem statement down to a few sentences, others will quickly understand what you focus on and why, and what’s out of scope. Spend some time to draft and redraft the problem statement with your team.

The examples I’ve given so far are negative — talking about something that needs fixing. However, problem statements can also capture opportunities (in which case they are sometimes referred to as opportunity statements instead of problem statements, although they are written and used in the same way).

Here’s an example of a problem statement that highlights an opportunity, rather than a problem that needs to be fixed:

The process of purchasing a newly built home can take a long time and requires many offline activities. This means sales often take a long time to close. There’s an opportunity to make home buying quicker and easier, and thus improve customer-satisfaction ratings and sales.

In an opportunity statement, we need to highlight the gap between where we are now (the present state) and where we want to be in the future (the desired state). A good question to ask to highlight this gap is: What do we want to achieve?

Your problem statement can be used as the starting point for structuring your discovery work. For example, if the problem statement was about improving the home-buying process, the goal for the discovery should be to learn about opportunities to make home buying quicker and easier. Once we have a discovery goal, it becomes easier to know what unknowns need research. For example, in this case, we probably want to know things like:

• Which activities do homebuyers perceive as difficult or time-consuming?
• Which activities or use cases can slow down the home-buying process and why?
• What does the end-to-end journey currently look like?

As you begin discovery, you can return to your problem statement and refine it — particularly if you’ve learned root causes or how much a problem costs your organization. Another reason to update your problem statement is if the discovery changes direction — which can happen when new areas of interest are highlighted through exploratory research. Finally, at the end of the discovery process, the problem statement can be communicated alongside your findings and recommendations to provide the full narrative of the discovery process.

A problem statement is a concise description of the problem to be solved. Writing problem statements at the beginning of the discovery process can create alignment and buy-in around the problem to be solved and provide direction in subsequent discovery activities. To construct problem statements, focus on who the problem affects, how it does so, and why it’s important to solve the problem.

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What is a problem statement in UX and how do you write one?

A problem statement summarises the user problem a UX designer needs to solve. Discover problem statement examples and learn how to write your own in this guide.

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UX designers are problem solvers. They spend time getting to know their target users, identifying their pain-points, understanding their needs and goals, and then designing effective solutions.

Problem statements are a powerful tool in the UX design process. They help UX designers identify and articulate the problem that needs to be solved, ensuring they’re on track to meet the end user’s needs.

In this guide, we’ll show you—with examples—what a problem statement is, why it’s so useful for UX, and how to write your own. 

Let’s begin.

What is a problem statement? A definition

UX design is all about solving problems for users. Before you can come up with effective solutions, you need to know exactly what problem you’re trying to solve. That’s where problem statements come in.

A problem statement is a clear, concise description of the user problem a UX designer needs to solve. 

It sums up, in a few sentences, who is affected by the problem, where and why the problem occurs (the context), and the impact of the problem — in other words, why it’s important that this problem be solved. 

Note that a problem statement does not suggest solutions. It may refer to what the user needs in broad terms, but it doesn’t start to consider what the answer may be. 

A problem statement is a springboard for further exploration, pin-pointing where UX designers should focus their efforts as they move from discovery to ideation and solution-finding.

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What does a problem statement look like? Problem statement examples

A problem statement is built on the following framework:

[User A] experiences [this problem] when they [try to complete this action / use a particular product or service] in [this context]. This is a problem because [it has this impact on the user experience and on the business]. 

This is still rather abstract, so let’s explore some (hypothetical) problem statement examples. 

Problem statement examples

1. a problem statement for a gym:.

Members of our gym are not able to book classes in advance, which often results in classes being too full and some members being turned away on the day. This regularly leads to complaints from members and makes it difficult for instructors to plan ahead. This could impact membership loyalty and referrals, as well as instructor retention.

2. A problem statement for a recruiting agency:

Jobseekers are required to manually input their personal details, work experience, and qualifications every time they wish to apply for a new role via our platform. On average, this takes around 1.5 hours per candidate per job. Recruiters are complaining that there are not enough applicants for their roles, and there is a high application abandonment rate. This is making it difficult for recruiters to meet their placement targets. 

3. A problem statement for a second-hand clothing app:

Sellers on our second-hand clothing app are unable to see where buyers are located, and buyers are unable to filter sellers by location. This often results in unfulfilled or cancelled transactions due to high postage costs, leaving both sellers and buyers unhappy. This is also impacting revenue. 

As you can see, each of these problem statements clearly outlines the user(s) concerned, the problem they face, the context of the problem, and the impact of the problem on the user, the organisation, or both. 

Now we know what a problem statement is, let’s consider when you might write one.

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When should you write a problem statement?

UX problem statements are usually generated in the discovery phase. That is, the part of the UX process that’s dedicated to understanding your users and what they want and need in relation to your product.

You might write your problem statement:

• Before conducting user research . Perhaps you’ve observed a particular issue with your product or been made aware of a bottleneck through customer or internal stakeholder feedback. You might write a problem statement and use it as the basis for further user research and exploration of the problem space. 
• After conducting user research. Once you’ve conducted thorough user research, you might write a problem statement to summarise and pin-point the main user problem you identified. This will then inform the ideation and solution-finding stage.

Either way, you should always write your problem statement before you start ideating and developing potential solutions. 

How to write a problem statement

So how do you actually write a useful problem statement? 

• Identify the people who experience, and are impacted by, the problem. This might be end users and customers, target users you’re trying to win over, and/or internal company stakeholders.
• Articulate the problem as clearly and concisely as you can. What exactly is the problem and where does it occur? Aim to keep your problem statement brief and focused while providing enough context.
• Explain the impact of the problem. How does the problem impact the user groups concerned? What undesirable consequences does it result in? If possible (and where relevant), explain how the problem affects both the direct user and the organisation/the business. 

If you don’t feel like you have enough information or insight to write your problem statement based on those three steps, consider using the “6 Ws” technique. You can do this in collaboration with key stakeholders and/or the rest of the design team—essentially anyone who can shed some light on what needs to be solved! 

The “6 Ws” technique is simple. Just answer the following questions—or, if you’re doing it as a group, ask each member to jot down their answers individually and then review them afterwards:

• Who is impacted by the problem?
• What is the problem they are facing?
• Where does this problem come up? 
• When does the problem occur? In what situation?
• Why does the problem arise? 
• Why does the problem matter? What impact does it have on the end user and/or the business?

With answers to each of these questions, you should be able to formulate an insightful problem statement. If you’re stuck with the actual writing part, use one of our examples from earlier in this post and simply switch out the key details.

What happens next? Using your problem statement 

With a well-crafted problem statement, you can investigate the problem space further and start to think about possible solutions. 

Often, UX designers will turn their problem statements into “How might we?” questions. This reframes the initial problem as a design opportunity, helping to spark the ideation and solution-finding process. 

For example: if your problem statement says that “jobseekers are required to manually input their personal details every time they wish to apply for a new role”, you might reframe this as “How might we streamline the job application process for jobseekers?”

If your problem statement says that “on average, it takes around 1.5 hours for candidates to apply for a job”, you might reframe this as “How can we reduce the time it takes for candidates to apply for a job?” 

Bear in mind that you may not go straight from the problem statement to “How might we?” questions and solutions. If further exploration of the problem space uncovers new or more pressing problems, you might need to go back and revise your problem statement first. 

As you know, UX design is an iterative process that’s rarely ever linear. Defining the problem is no exception! And it’s essential to make sure you’re focusing on the right problem; only then can you design worthwhile solutions that meet your users’ needs. 

Problem statements are just one of many tools used by UX designers to create impactful user experiences. For more tools and techniques, check out these guides:

• How to design a customer journey map
• How to use storyboards in UX
• The power of storytelling in UX design
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7 Effective Ways to Craft Compelling Problem Statements for UX Design

In the realm of UX design, crafting an effective problem statement is a crucial first step toward creating innovative, user-centric design solutions. A problem statement serves as the foundation for the entire design process. It helps UX designers to understand users’ needs and serves as a compass that guides designers through an intricate maze of user needs, frustrations, and aspirations. Understanding your user’s needs is essential to successfully addressing their painpoints.

In this article, I’ll define what a problem statement is and explore six effective ways of crafting compelling problem statements for UX design.

Understanding the Problem Statement for UX Design

In UX design , a problem statement is a concise, clear articulation of the user’s challenge or need that a design solution aims to solve. It sets the stage for the entire design process by outlining the context, scope, and painpoints of the user.

A well-crafted problem statement not only defines the problem but also serves as a guide for UX designers. It helps them to align their efforts with the user’s goals and expectations. By drafting a solid problem statement, you can not only sharpen the UX designer’s focus but also set the stage for designing innovative, user-centric solutions. This is essential to transform a user interface into an experience that delights and satisfies users.

Effective Ways of Crafting Compelling Problem Statements

Creating an effective problem statement can be a challenging task . The problem is that, without a proper problem statement, you might not be able to create a design solution that actually satisfies the user’s requirements.

Now, let’s consider some effective ways of crafting a compelling problem statement that can make your UX design process a smooth one. By taking these approaches, you can come up with a powerful problem statement that paves the way for your success.

1. Taking a User-Centric Approach

The first point to consider when crafting a problem statement is the need to take a user-centric approach. So start this process by putting the user at the center of defining your problem statement. In doing so, you must understand the user’s perspective, needs, and painpoints.

When defining the problem statement, be sure to use empathetic language that resonates with the user’s experience. For example, instead of stating: Users struggle with navigation , you might say: Users find it challenging to navigate the user interface. This leads to user frustration and a suboptimal user experience.

Only by understanding the challenges and frustrations a user interface causes can you define a problem statement that clarifies users’ needs for the UX designer and lays the groundwork for more effective problem-solving. So emphasize the painpoints that users are experiencing. It’s also important to articulate the problems that users are facing and explain how solving these problems can improve their experience. Doing this also helps UX designers keep their focus on the user and ensures that the design solution aligns more closely with the needs, preferences, and behaviors of the target audience.

2. Defining the Scope Clearly

The next important point to consider is the need to define the scope of the design solution clearly. Doing so requires that you clearly outline the boundaries and context of the problem. Many people provide vague problem statements that can confuse UX designers. So try to avoid making vague or overly broad statements. Those defining product requirements need to clearly understand and define what problems they’re facing to ensure that UX designers can deliver good results. It’s also very important to take different perspectives into account, as well as the potential causes of the problems.

Consider how different stakeholders might view the problem. Then share your problem statement with your stakeholders and gather their feedback to learn what they think. This can make it easier to articulate the problem in a better way.

In defining a problem statement, specify the target audience, the platform, and the specific scenarios in which the problem occurs. A well-defined scope helps in focusing UX design efforts and prevents the project from becoming overwhelming.

3. Highlighting Impacts and Consequences

Next, it’s important to highlight the impacts and consequences of the problem. When you emphasize the consequences of the problem, it becomes easier for the UX designer to underscore its significance and address the problem effectively.

Explain how the identified issues affect the user’s experience and, if appropriate, the overall business goals. Take a step ahead and define specific scenarios in which the problem occurs. Provide concrete examples that illustrate how the problem manifests in real-life situations. You can use anecdotes, case studies, or user data to paint a vivid picture of the problem’s impacts.

Doing so adds a sense of urgency and importance to the problem that can compel the UX design team to prioritize and address the problem more effectively.

4. Quantifying and Qualifying the Problem

A product team’s UX designers might not know and understand the problem well enough unless you tell them exactly what the problem is. So try to be as clear as possible. You should also try to provide data and evidence that supports the existence of the problem.

If necessary, conduct user research and usability testing and gather analytics data to quantify the impacts of the issue. To add depth and context to the problem statement, you should also try to incorporate qualitative insights such as user feedback and anecdotes.

Sometimes, highlighting key metrics or indicators that demonstrate the severity or scale of the issue can be super effective. Increase the credibility of your problem statement by combining quantitative and qualitative elements of the problem statement.

5. Aligning with Business Objectives

One of the most crucial things to do when working on your problem statement is to ensure that your problem aligns with your company’s business objectives . To do this, you first have to connect the problem statement with broader business objectives. Then you need to clearly articulate how solving the identified problem aligns with the organization’s goals and values.

Achieving this alignment not only justifies the resources your team has allocated to solving the problem but also ensures that the UX design solution contributes to the overall success of the product or service.

6. Using Concise, Clear Language

When drafting your problem statement, always keep it concise, and make sure it’s easy to understand. While you might sometimes be tempted to use jargon, that could lead to greater confusion. Avoid using unnecessary jargon or esoteric technical terms that might hinder the comprehension of either the UX design team or stakeholders.

By using clear, straightforward language, you can ensure that everyone who is involved in the UX design process shares a common understanding of the problem and its significance. This can make it easier for UX designers to solve the problem more effectively.

7. Focusing on Opportunities, Not Just Issues

Frame problem statements as opportunities for improvement rather than merely identifying issues. This positive framing encourages the UX design team to approach challenges with a solution-oriented mindset. When you focus on opportunities, you can motivate UX designers to innovate and create positive user experiences.

Crafting a compelling problem statement is a pivotal step of the UX design process and one of the first steps in setting the tone for creating successful solutions. The ability to articulate the problem effectively lays the groundwork for creating a user experience that not only meets but exceeds users’ expectations.

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Founder at WPBeginner and CEO at Awesome Motive Inc

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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5 Ways to Write Clear Problem Statement in UX Discovery

Sector: Digital Product , Technology , UI/UX

Author: Nisarg Mehta

Date Published: 07/29/2022

What are Problem Statements in UX Discovery?

Examples of problem statements in ux discovery.

• Think of Your Customer
• Use User Personas and Scenarios
• Use the Fill-in-the-Blank Technique to Write Problem Statement
• Focus on One Problem at a Time

How to Use Problem Statements for UX Discovery

• Key Takeaway

UX research begins with an entry point where a problem statement is required in order to collect data. The statement can be an improvement statement, a hypothesis, a business idea, or any entrepreneurial inspiration.

Creating a problem statement ensures that your team, including stakeholders and clients, is on the same page about who you are designing for, the problem you plan to solve, and the importance of doing so.

As a result, to work toward the same design goals as a whole team by expressing these things through a thoughtful, user-focused problem statement is what you want to achieve.

This article will take you through the anatomy of the problem statements in UX discovery.

You’ll get the answers to what problem statements are and how to write one for your use case.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

A problem statement is the brief of a user pain point that needs to be solved with design.

In other words, a problem statement is an actionable summary of your user’s goals and the issues that must be addressed to satisfy them.

The problem statements have a clear direction for the user experience, although they don’t include any design details or user behavior. Instead, they inform you of your reasons for designing user experiences in the first place.

Using a problem statement, a team can focus on the issues they need to address and solve. It defines the boundaries of the investigation and outlines what must be accomplished. A well-crafted problem statement can be used to gain stakeholder support for investigating and resolving a challenge.

People often discuss UX Design challenges in terms of users’ pain or desires, but frankly, users aren’t even aware of what they have to solve or struggle with.

There is a famous quote by Henry Ford that perfectly supports this claim of ours.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

It’s a wonderful example of how we should keep digging for answers and seek the cause of issues rather than accepting the answers users give us.

Enough for the theory, let’s read some of the best problem statements in UX discovery:

• Our EdTech app users often export the material from the app instead of sharing the content link through the app. It creates a problem for the information receiver because they won’t know the source and authenticity of the content; neither will our users increase. It’s an issue for app users as they have to take extra steps to share the content. This, overall, impacts their experience.
• Customer care reps spend a long time asking the customers about the service they’re using and the issues related to that. This drives a bad service experience for customers, resulting in high customer churn.
• Parents need an easily accessible platform to train their kids for internet scams. Currently, they have to browse through the internet to find authentic material.
• Working professionals need a platform to remind them to take short breaks during long working hours. Not taking frequent breaks is affecting their physical and mental health.
• Online buyers need an online platform that can get them access to authentic refurbished products. Currently, they’re using Best Buy and eBay to find refurbished products.

How to Write Problem Statement in UX Discovery

The research for the problem statement goes through several checkpoints. The UX researchers/designers need to go through the following in order to come up with problem statements that make sense:

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1. Think of Your Customer

If you want to come up with a user-centric problem statement in UX discovery. It’s better if you start from the user’s perspective.

Following are different ways you can extract the problem statements from the users:

5 Ws Approach

You use the data you gathered during the empathize phase to answer the key queries: who, what, where, when, and why in the 5 Ws technique.

Whether you’re working with other members of the group or researching on your own, you’ll ask and answer questions beginning with the 5 Ws.

You’ll be able to describe who your users are, what they want, where they’ll use your product when the problem occurs, and why their problem is important by answering these questions.

• Who is affected by this problem? Specifically, who gets influenced by this problem? What are their demographics, personas, etc.?
• What is the problem? What obstacles are the users facing? How does this problem make their process less efficient?
• Where does the problem occur? Is there a special context where the problem arises?
• When does the problem occur? At what stage does the user face the problem?
• Why is the problem important? How will the users benefit by solving this problem?

Now, to construct a problem statement that is centered on the user, you must put into words the most critical observations that came out of your user research, which you then synthesize to arrive at a user-centric problem statement.

Asking 5 Whys

The 5 Whys method works much like the 5 Ws technique, except that each question is ‘why.’ This method helps you identify a dilemma’s fundamental cause by repeatedly questioning ‘why’ to your previous answer.

For instance, during user research, you discovered that buyer persona type A (let’s name it Roy) doesn’t have formals to wear at work. In this case, you can use the 5 Whys technique to get to the root of the problem:

• Why doesn’t Roy wear formals at work? – Because he doesn’t have formals to wear.
• Why doesn’t Roy have formals to wear? – Because he hasn’t shopped for formals in over a year.
• Why hasn’t Roy shopped for formals? – Because Roy hates to shop online.
• Why does Roy hate to shop online? – Because most of the time clothes don’t fit him as desired.
• Why do online-bought clothes not fit Roy? – Because brands have different sizes, and he has no idea which size will fit him.

The fifth Why indicates that the cause of Roy’s problem is that he doesn’t know which size would fit him, and that’s why he doesn’t buy formals online. As a result, the UX designers’ focus should be on easing out the sizing issue.

For this technique, 5 is just a rule of thumb. You can even ask more or fewer questions to get to the problem’s root.

Now when you’ve found the root of the problem. Now is the time to write the problem statement.

2. Use User Personas and Scenarios

In most cases, not all your users face the same problem. Hence, while writing problem statements, focus on the user personas that face the same problem.

Wonder what user personas are?

When you’re designing a product, your job as a UX designer is to build empathy for your target customers and determine exactly what they want. With user research, you begin by creating a user persona—a fictional representation of your ideal client.

And in this case, the user persona will be the fictional representation of the group of users facing the same problem.

The user personas can be defined with the following key information:

• Personal background
• Professional background
• User environment
• psychographics
• Scenario, where the user interacts with our product

3. Use the Fill-in-the-Blank Technique to Write Problem Statement

According to Sarah Gibbons of Nielsen Norman Group, a problem statement can be structured in a simple manner using three elements – A user, A need, and A goal.

These three combined in a statement will form an accurate problem statement in the following manner – “[A user] needs [the need] to accomplish [the goal].”

Continuing the previous example, if the user is Roy, the problem statement will be – “Roy (the user) needs a better sizing system in the online app (the need) to buy frequently (the goal).”

4. Focus on One Problem at a Time

When you’re working on a discovery effort, you should keep your problem statement focused on just one problem.

Of course, a single issue may lead to other issues, and you can include those as well. However, if you’re handling too much, you’ll recognize it because you’ll have a lot of unrelated problems.

Also, when writing the problem statement, don’t focus on the solution; leave it for the later part.

At the end of your discovery, you will be in an ideal position to confidently put forward solutions that address the key problem and take into account what you have learned.

The problem statement can be used as the foundation for structuring UX discovery.

For example, if the issue was about improving the online-buying procedure, you would want to learn about ways to make the online buying process faster and simpler.

Once you have an investigation objective, it will be easier to pinpoint the unknowns that need research. For instance, in this example, you’d want to know the following:

• What process do online buyers find complex or challenging to go through?
• What does the end-to-end buying journey look like?
• What UX features can ease the process of selecting the right product?

When you begin to explore a problem, you might return to your problem statement and improve it—especially if you have discovered its underlying causes or the amount of money it can potentially cost your business.

For example, new areas of interest might be identified through explorative research, which may cause the discovery to shift direction.

Finally, after the discovery process, a problem statement can be used to describe the entire narrative, alongside your findings and recommendations.

Who the problem affects, how it affects them, and why it is important to solve it are all described in problem statements.

So what are you waiting for? Start writing the problem statement.

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UX Problem Statement: How To Write One

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User experience design is all about finding solutions. However, you can’t have a solution without a problem to begin with. A UX problem statement is what helps you define your problem so that you can effectively create a solution.

A good problem statement can make sure the entire product team is on the same page about the project. You’ll know who you’re designing for, what you want to solve, and why it’s important.

Here’s everything you need to know about writing a problem statement.

What Is a UX Problem Statement?

Also called POV statements or user need statements, UX problem statements summarize pain points.

Throughout your user research , you’ll come to produce user personas . You can use these to empathize with real users and understand their pain points. It’s these pain points that you seek to solve through innovative design.

A problem statement succinctly summarizes the problem, giving you something to focus on. It does not cover potential solutions, though.

How To Write a UX Problem Statement

If you want your problem statement to be effective, you need to know how to write it effectively. There are a few different techniques you can use, including:

• The five whys
• The four Ws
• Fill in the blank

Here’s how to write a UX problem statement with each method.

The 5 Whys are some straightforward questions that will help you understand your users better. The idea is to understand the root cause, or causes, of a problem. You do this by asking a question and then questioning your answer.

Let’s say that, during user research, you found that customers are complaining about delayed deliveries of online purchases. You could ask these questions. 

• Why are the deliveries arriving late? Because the shipping department is experiencing a backlog.
• Why is there a backlog in the shipping department? Because there was a sudden increase in the volume of orders.
• Why was there a sudden increase in the volume of orders? Because the company launched a promotional campaign offering discounts.
• Why did the promotional campaign lead to an order surge? Because the discounts were higher than competitors.
• Why did the company decide to offer higher discounts than competitors? Because the marketing team believed it would boost sales.

Thus, the root cause of the problem is running a promotion the shipping department was unprepared for. The company can address the issue by optimizing its promotional campaigns to prevent overwhelming the shipping department. 

It’s worth remembering that the number ‘five’ here is arbitrary. You can ask more or fewer questions depending on what you need. 

Also, you might find that there’s more than one answer. In this case, follow each branch of questioning.

This technique is also about asking questions. However, this time, you’re answering who, what, where, and why. Use the research you gathered in the empathize phase to figure out the right questions you want to ask. 

For example:

1. Who does this issue affect? Be specific about this, including information from user demographics, personas, and so on.

2. What is the problem? What obstacles do your users face? What goal are they trying to achieve? What will streamline the process?

3. Where will they use the product? Is there a specific problem that comes up within this context? 

4. Why is it important? Why will users benefit from a product that solves this problem?

These are good questions to start with, but you can adapt them to suit your needs. It’s a good idea to brainstorm answers to these questions as a team, ensuring you don’t miss a particular angle.

Fill in the Blank

Sometimes, the easiest way to create a problem statement is to fill in the blanks of a template. That way, you can ensure that your statement is clear, concise, and accurate. 

Sarah Gibbons, from the Nielsen-Norman Group , says that a problem statement should include three things.

So, you can write a statement as follows: [User] needs [need] to accomplish [goal].

There are more complex ways to build on this statement. You can dive deeper into your user personas to think about various goals they might have. Using the ‘where’ examples from the questions above, you can also think more about context-specific problems.

Either way, the crucial thing here is to think about the user’s perspective. So, even with the ‘fill in the blanks’ method, questions are essential. It can still be helpful to walk through the four Ws or the five whys.

Another technique to use is to focus on emotions. So, for each persona you have, write down various activities they perform. Then, for each activity, come up with the steps the user needs to go through to complete the task. Think of this as a task flow. For each step, provide an obstacle that might arise and an emotion the user feels as a result.

At the end, choose one of the three steps to turn into a problem statement. You can write it out like this. 

[User] feels [negative feeling] about [reason] needs to [step], but faces [obstacle]. 

This is more complex than the first example because it includes emotions. As a result, it allows you to really empathize with the user. Remember, UX is all about your user’s feelings, which create the experience. So, honing in on those emotions can be a huge benefit. 

UX Problem Statement Template

The above technique of filling in the blank is a great way to lock in a user statement. Here is Page Flows’ UX problem statement template to help you get to the bottom of any app issue.

[User Type] is experiencing [Problem] when [Context/Scenario] because [Root Cause] .

This allows you to fill in the blanks while also thinking about the details of context and feelings.

For example, let’s say you have an app, and users are struggling to get to their advanced settings. By asking five whys, you figure out that there is limited visibility of the advanced settings option.

You would fill in the statement as follows:

Mobile app users are experiencing difficulty navigating the app while trying to access advanced settings. This is because of the limited visibility and wrong placement of advanced settings options.

Make sure you fill out your statement according to careful research and data, not just assumptions.

UX Problem Statement Examples

It can be helpful to see some UX problem statement examples to give you more of an idea. These effective problem statements can help you see how to formulate your own.

Each problem statement clearly outlines the user’s concerns, the problem, the context of the problem, and the impact. The impact can be on the user, the organization, or both. With this in mind, here are three examples of UX problem statements.

1. Ride-Sharing App

Commuters using ride-sharing apps like Uber sometimes face difficulty in estimating arrival times. The estimated time could change, particularly during peak hours or high-demand situations. 

Eventually, this makes users feel frustrated due to missed appointments and waiting around. It also reduces user satisfaction.

The root cause of this is inaccurate traffic prediction algorithms that don’t predict peak times. 

2. Meal Delivery Service

Customers ordering food become frustrated with late or cold food deliveries. This happens during busy evenings or adverse weather conditions.

The impact is dissatisfied customers, negative reviews, and a potential loss of business to competitors.

The root cause is inefficient delivery route optimization and a lack of real-time tracking.

3. Productivity App

A productivity app design team notices that professionals using the app have low engagement rates. There are also low task completion rates.

The impact is decreased app usage, a decline in user productivity, and a loss of subscribers.

User feedback reveals that users struggle with the app’s complex interface. Thus, poor user interface design and a lack of intuitive features are the root causes.

Design Thinking Problem Statement

UX problem statements and design thinking problem statements have a lot in common. However, a design thinking problem statement needs to be actionable. Design thinking teams will use problem statements to bridge the gap between the product’s features and the user’s needs.

The design thinking process is non-linear, which can make identifying problems and resolving them challenging. A problem statement with concise descriptions can really improve team collaboration. It ensures everybody is aligned and focused on the task at hand.

Hotjar ’s case study on this involves the online payment system Razorpay. Initially, users rated Razorpay’s dashboard design as a 6.2/10 during feedback. So, Razorpay knew it had to improve.

The problem statement was: “Users want an updated dashboard because they’re unhappy with the current version.”

The team had to get to the bottom of the numerical score. So, they asked users who had provided a low rating to explain why they had done so. In an open-ended survey , users provided more detailed answers.

Then, based on this user feedback, the team improved the dashboard design. In the end, they increased satisfaction by 40%.

Make the Most of UX With Page Flows

A well-crafted UX problem statement can make a huge difference to your design process. It helps you truly understand the problem you’re trying to solve. In fact, it helps you move beyond vague pain points to really focus on a specific, fixable issue. 

That said, it’s only part of the puzzle. You still need to come up with innovative designs that solve the problem at hand. 

When you’re looking for design inspiration, Page Flows is the answer. Our growing library of user flow recordings can help you stay up-to-date with current design trends. Get started today to find new UX design ideas.

The Page Flows Team is a collective of passionate UX design professionals dedicated to delivering insightful content on user experience and design principles. With diverse backgrounds and expertise, our contributing writers bring you the latest trends, tips, and research in the UX field. Each article is crafted with a focus on empathy, innovation, and a commitment to enhancing user interactions. Outside of writing, our team members draw inspiration from various pursuits such as outdoor activities, art, and continuous learning, fueling their creativity and drive to push the boundaries of UX design. The Page Flows Team is committed to providing valuable resources and engaging content to help you stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of user experience.

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How to Write a UX Case Study: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

Learn the step-by-step process of writing a compelling UX case study that will elevate your online portfolio

Craig Barber

Senior Product Designer

As a digital product designer, one of the most effective ways to showcase your skills and expertise is by creating a compelling UX case study for your online portfolio.

A well-crafted case study not only demonstrates your design process but also highlights your problem-solving abilities and the value you bring to the table.

In this blog post, we'll briefly touch on what a UX case study is, we'll then walk you through the essential steps how to write a UX case study that will impress potential clients and employers.

Let's get started!

What is a UX case study?

A UX case study is like a story that designers tell to explain how they solved a design problem.

It's a way to show others how they researched , planned, and created a digital product or experience that is user-friendly and effective.

It includes details about the project's goals , the people they designed for, the steps they took, and the final design they came up with.

A UX case study helps designers demonstrate their skills and expertise in making things easy to use and enjoyable for users.

It's a friendly and simple way for them to share their design journey and showcase their problem-solving abilities.

Video on how to write a UX case study:

8 Simple steps to creating a UX case study:

1. choose the right project:.

Selecting the right project for your case study is crucial. Aim for a project that best represents your skills and aligns with the type of work you want to attract. It should be a project where you had a significant impact and can showcase your problem-solving abilities and design thinking process effectively.

2. Define the Problem:

Start your case study by clearly defining the problem you were trying to solve. Explain the context, the pain points, and the goals of the project. Highlight the challenges you faced, as well as any research or data that supported your problem identification process.

3. Describe the Research and Discovery Phase:

In this section, describe your research methodologies, including user interviews, surveys , and competitive analysis. Share insights you gained from your research and how they influenced your design decisions. This demonstrates your ability to empathize with users and make informed design choices based on their needs.

4. Outline the Design Process:

Present your design process in a structured and coherent manner. Include wireframes , prototypes, and iterations that show the evolution of your design. Explain the rationale behind your design decisions and how they addressed the identified problem. Be sure to highlight any user testing or feedback loops that helped refine your solution.

‍5. Showcase the Visual Design:

This section is an opportunity to showcase your visual design skills. Include high-fidelity mockups or screenshots that highlight the aesthetics, typography, color schemes, and overall visual appeal of your design. Explain the reasoning behind your design choices and how they enhance the user experience .

6. Present the Final Solution:

Describe the final solution you arrived at and how it effectively addresses the initial problem. Include metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the success of your solution. Whenever possible, provide real-world results , such as increased user engagement, improved conversion rates , or positive user feedback.

7. Reflect and Share Learnings:

Take a moment to reflect on the project and share any lessons or insights gained during the design process . Discuss what worked well, what challenges you encountered, and how you overcame them. This demonstrates your ability to learn and grow as a designer.

8. Present the Case Study Effectively:

Pay attention to the presentation and formatting of your case study. Use clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make it easy to read and skim. Include relevant visuals, such as images , diagrams , and charts, to enhance the visual appeal. Make sure your case study is concise, engaging, and aligned with your personal brand.

Frequently asked questions on how to write a UX case study:

Why are UX case studies important?

UX case studies are important for several reasons. They provide insights into the design process , showcase a designer's skills and abilities, and demonstrate how user-centered design principles were applied to solve a specific problem. They are also useful for sharing knowledge, building credibility, and securing job opportunities.

How long should a UX case study be?

The length of a UX case study can vary depending on the complexity of the project and the information you want to convey. However, it's generally recommended to keep it concise and focused, aiming for a length of 800 to 1,500 words. Including visual elements like images , diagrams, or prototypes is also encouraged to enhance understanding and engagement.

What are some tips for creating an effective UX case study?

Here are a few tips to create an effective UX case study:

Clearly define the problem: Start by clearly articulating the problem statement and why it is important to address.

Show the design process: Walk through the design process, highlighting key decisions, iterations, and insights gained along the way.

Include visuals: Incorporate visual elements like wireframes , prototypes, and user interface designs to provide a visual context and make the case study more engaging.

Share the impact: Demonstrate the impact of your design solution by including user feedback, success metrics, or before-and-after comparisons.

Be concise and organized: Keep the case study concise and well-structured, making it easy for the reader to follow your thought process and understand the project's evolution.

Tailor it to the audience: Adapt your case study to the audience you're targeting, focusing on aspects that are most relevant and impactful to them.

Can I include confidential or proprietary information in a UX case study?

It's generally advised to avoid including confidential or proprietary information in a public UX case study. If you need to showcase sensitive information, consider anonymizing or obfuscating the data to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the individuals or organizations involved. Always respect any non-disclosure agreements or intellectual property rights you may have signed.

Should I include negative feedback or challenges faced in a UX case study?

Yes, it's important to be transparent about the challenges and obstacles encountered during a UX project. Including negative feedback or hurdles you faced demonstrates your ability to navigate difficulties and adapt your approach. Highlighting how you addressed and overcame challenges can also provide valuable insights into your problem-solving skills and resilience as a designer .

Can I use visuals created by others in my UX case study?

If you use visuals created by others, such as stock photos , icons , or illustrations , make sure you have the necessary permissions and licenses to use them in your case study. It's important to respect copyright laws and intellectual property rights. When in doubt, it's best to create your own visuals or use resources that are explicitly licensed for free or commercial use.

How should I present my UX case study?

UX case studies can be presented in various formats, depending on the context and requirements. Common formats include a written document, a slide deck presentation, or a web page . Consider the needs of your audience and the platform where you plan to showcase your case study. Ensure it is well-organized, visually appealing, and easy to navigate , allowing the viewer to understand your design process and the outcomes clearly.

Writing a compelling UX case study is an essential skill for any digital product designer. 

It allows you to showcase your problem-solving abilities, design process, and the impact you have made on real-world projects. 

By carefully selecting the right project, highlighting your research and design decisions, and presenting your case study effectively, you can create a captivating narrative that will impress potential clients and employers. 

Remember, a well-crafted case study is not just a reflection of your design skills, but also an opportunity to tell a compelling story about your expertise and approach to UX design.

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11 Inspiring UX Case Studies That Every Designer Should Study

A UX case study is a sort of detailed overview of a designer's work. They are often part of a UX designer's portfolio and showcase the designer's skill in managing tasks and problems. From a recruiter's perspective, such a UX portfolio shows the skill, insights, knowledge, and talent of the designer.

Therefore, UX case studies play an important role in the recruitment and demand for designers.

What Makes a Powerful Case Study

Building a UX case study includes showing the design process through compelling stories. They will use plain language to demonstrate how they handled key design issues, offering a comprehensive view of their process. Well done case studies often include:

• A  problem statement and solutions with real applications.
• Relevant numbers, data, or testimonials to demonstrate the work and efforts.
• A story that directly connects the problem to the solution.

Any competent UX professional will know that creating a stunning UX case study is about the little details.

11 Best UX Case Studies for Designers

The best way to understand what a good case study looks like is to go over other examples. Each of these UX case study examples shows a designer's insights, basic skills, and other designers' lessons learned through their experience.

1. Promo.com web editor

For this video-creation platform , UX designer Sascha was brought on to revamp v2.0, adding new features that could work alongside the existing UX design. The point was to work on interface details that would help create a user friendly platform, and that users could find simple enough to use.

User personas mapped by the UX designer revealed the most common confusion to be the process of inserting particular features into the video, such as subtitles. The designer's goal, therefore, was to create a platform with improved editor controls.

The designer then used a common text-editor layout to include top and side navigation bars that made it easy to access and implement text editing.

Key Learnings from Promo.com

This case study focuses on addressing a particular problem that customers were currently facing. Its main theme is to show a problem, and how the product designer addressed this problem. Its strength points include:

• clearly highlighting the problem (i.e. inaccessible and limited video-text editor options)
• conduction research to understand the nature of the problem and the kind of solutions customers want
• implementing research insights into the redesign to create a platform that actively served customer needs

2. Productivity tracker app

The main concept behind this UX case study is to address a pre-existing problem through the design of the app. Immediately from the start, the study highlights a common pain point among users: that of a lack of productivity due to device usage.

This UX case study example addressed some of the main problems within existing productivity apps included:a poor UI and UX that made navigation difficult

• a poorly-built information architecture
• limited functions on the mobile application

Key Learnings from the Productivity app case study

The case study highlights the simple design process that was then used to build the app. Wireframes were created, a moldboard developed, and finally, individual pages of the app were designed in line with the initial goals.

3. Postmates Unlimited

This case study clearly identifies the improvements made to the Postmates app in a simple overview before jumping into greater detail. The redesign goal, which it achieved, was to improve the experience and other interface details of the app.

The problems identified included:

• usability that led to high support ticket volume.
• technical app infrastructure issues that prevented scalability.
• lack of efficient product management, such as batching orders.

A UX research course can help understand the kind of research needed for a case study. The app redesign involved bringing couriers in and running usability testing on improvements. The final model, therefore, had input from real users on what worked and what caused issues.

Key Learnings from Postmates

The Postmates redesign works as a great UX case study for the simple way it approaches problem-solving. Following an overview of the work, it addresses the problems faced by users of the app. It then establishes research processes and highlights how changes were made to reduce these issues.

4. TV Guide

Addressing the fragmentation of content across channels, this case study sought to redesign how people consume media. The key problems identified included:

• the overabundance of content across various TV and streaming platforms
• the difficulty in discovering and managing content across all platforms

To deliver on the key goals of content personalization, smart recommendations, and offering cross-platform content search, the design process included conducting interviews, surveys, and checking customer reviews.

The design of TV Guide enables users to get custom recommendations sourced from friends' and family's watchlists.

Key Learnings from TV Guide

Like previous UX design case studies, this one tackled the issue head-on. Describing the research process, it goes into detail regarding the approach used by the UX designers to create the app. It takes readers on a journey, from identifying pain points, to testing solutions, and implementing the final version.

5. The FlexBox Inspector

Designer Victoria discusses how she developed the investigator tool for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Surveys into understanding the problems with the existing CSS Flexbox tool revealed a need for a user-friendly design. Interviews with a senior designer and other designers helped developers understand the features design-focused tools ought to have. A feature analysis revealed what most users look for in such tools.

The final result of the development process was a design that incorporated several new features, including:

• a new layout
• color-coded design
• multiple entry points to make workflow management efficient

Key Learnings from the Flexbox

This UX design case study starts with a clear goal, then addresses multiple user needs. It clearly defines the design process behind each feature developed by the time, and the reasoning for including that feature. To give a complete picture, it also discusses why certain features or processes were excluded.

6. The Current State of Checkouts

This Baymard UX design case study looks into the checkout process in over 70 e-commerce websites. Through competitive analysis, it isolates problem points in the UX design, which, if addressed, could improve the customer's checkout process.

The study found at least 31 common issues that were easily preventable. The study was designed and conducted on a large scale, over 12 years, to incorporate changing design patterns into the review.

Recommendations based on findings include:

• prominent guest checkout option
• simple password requirements
• specific delivery period
• price comparison tool for shipping vs store pickup

Key Learnings from Checkout Case Study

Each identified issue is backed up by data and research to highlight its importance. Further research backs up each recommendation made within the case study, with usability testing to support the idea. As far as UX case studies go, this one provides practical insight into an existing, widely used e-commerce feature, and offers practical solutions.

7. New York Times App

Using a creative illustration website, the designers proposed a landing page feature "Timely" that could counter the problems faced by the NYT app . Its major issues included too much irrelevant content, low usage, and undesirable coverage of content.

The goal behind Timely was to improve user incentives, build long-term loyalty, and encourage reading. Design mapping for the app covered:

• identifying the problem
• understanding audience needs
• creating wireframes
• designing and prototyping

The end result was an app that could help readers get notifications regarding news of interest at convenient moments (at breakfast, before bed). This encouraged interaction and improved readability with short-form articles.

Key Learnings from NYT App

The UX case study proposes a problem solution that works with an existing information architecture, instead adding custom graphics to the mobile app. It leads from a simple problem statement to discuss the project that could address these issues without changing was customers already loved.

UX case studies focused on redesign include the FitBit redesign, which started off by understanding personas and what users expect from a fitness tracker. Developing use cases and personas, Guerilla usability testing was employed to assess pain points.

These pain points were then ranked based on their importance to users and to app performance. They were addressed through:

• Highlighting essential parts and features of the app
• Changing easily missed icons to more recognizable icons
• relabelling tracking options to guide users better to its usage

Key Learnings from Fitbit

While the case study maps user experiences and offers solutions, it does not begin with an intensive research-based approach. The prototype is successful in testing, but problem factors are not identified with research-based statistics, meaning key factors could have been ignored.

9. Rating System UX

The designer behind the rating system UX redesign sought to solve issues with the 5-star rating system. Highlighted issues included:

• the lack of subjective accuracy of a 5-point rating system
• the issue of calculating the average of a zero-star rating
• average ratings are misleading

Better alternatives include:

• 5-star emoticon rating that relates the user experience
• Like/dislike buttons that make approval/disapproval simple

The final design incorporated both these styles to make full use of the rating system.

Key Learnings from Rating System UX

The UX case study stemmed from insight into the limitations of the existing rating system. The new design addressed old issues and incorporated better efficiencies.

The Intuit redesign was focused on making content readable, more engaging, and accessible. Looking into product personalization, the content was found to be lacking aesthetic value, as well as being hard to find. The goal was to create content that was easy to find, clear, and consistent.

The implemented solutions included:

• increased readability with increased body text and header spacing
• table of contents on the sidebar for easier navigation
• visible and prominent search bar
• illustrations and designs for pretty visuals

Key Learnings from Intuit

The Intuit case study approaches the problem from a practical point of view. It begins with isolating problems with the interface, in particular with the content. This is an example of a case study that breaks down problems into broader categories, and solves each problem with a practical solution.

This UX case study about a social platform tackles a commonly-faced problem from existing platforms. It addresses the issue of recognizing non-monetary user engagement, to help creators identify their user base.

The case study addresses the problem statement and establishes the design process (building wireframes and prototypes) as well as conducting user testing. The final result is to develop "Discover" pages, engaging layouts, and animated interactions to increase usability.

Key Learnings from Jambb

The study goes into detail regarding problem identification, then moves on to propose solutions that take into account the perspective of all stakeholders involved. It then explains why each design decision was made, and proves its efficacy through testing and prototyping.

Key Takeaways

Developing good UX case studies examples is as much about the details you include as the ones you leave out. Going over UX courses can give you a better understanding of what your case study should look like. A good case study should provide an overview of the problem, include numbers and statistics, and offer practical solutions that directly address the problem. The above-discussed UX case studies provide a good example of the dos and don'ts of a well-structured UX design case study that should be part of every UX portfolio .

Additional Resources

Check out these resources to learn more about UX case studies:

8 UX Case Studies to Read

UX Design Case Study

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7 Best UX Case Study Generators (and how to use them)

If you're looking for UX case study ideas, topics or challenges, these UX case study generators can help you create portfolio pieces and improve your UX/UI skills. Here are some of the best ones and the pros and cons of using them.

What is a case study generator?

A UX Case Study Generator is a tool that serves up hypothetical UX design project ideas, problems, challenges or exercises that you can complete on your own to practice your UX skills or use to create UX Case studies and projects for UX/UI portfolio.

UX Case Study Generators

1. UX Challenge

UX challenge provides prompts and exercises that allows you to practice your problem-solving skills and create one-off projects for your portfolio. The Challenges presented here have been created by UX Designer Yachin and are based on real-world problems.

You can browse through a few different industries or categories on the homepage and then view the details of the project brief.

With more than 15 millions prompts available, there are lots of UX/Product Design prompts to choose from. To start, click on 'Product/UX' and then Click ‘New Challenge’. If you like certain elements of the brief you can lock those in place and then click New Challenge again to regenerate the unlocked parts until you find something you like.

3. Designercize

This fun arcade game-like interface lets you choose the level of difficulty and gives you a timer so that you can test your speed. While this tool doesn’t allow you to select a specific category, you can regenerate exercises until you find one that appeals to you.

4. UX Tools Challenges

If you need practice creating specific UX deliverables or applying certain user research methods this is a great option. You can browse through a number of UX prompt cards and click on a UX challenge to view a hypothetical scenario, instructions and tutorials on how to approach the challenges.

5. Uplabs Challenges

Uplabs hosts open design challenges that you can enter for prizes. They have deadlines in place and submissions are reviewed via voting. Check out their active listings to see on-going challenges and see the submission details and requirements. You can also view past challenges and try using them as practice on your for use as UX case study ideas.

6. 100Daysofproductdesign

100 Days of Product is a series of design challenges that help you learn to tackle specific problems that arise in UX and product design roles (such as running a design sprint) and prompts you to create deliverables around them. There is also a separate set of whiteboarding challenges that you can take in preparation for interviews.

7. DesignerUp

Our Product Design course is home to one the best UX and Product Design case study creators you can find...yourself! You get to ideate on original concepts yourself from scratch, is completely unique, perfectly suited to who you are as a designer, shows your process and ensures you stand out from the crowd. You also get free access to our portfolio builder for Notion that has helped our students easily create product design case studies and land their dream roles!

UX Case Study Usage

There are 4 main ways we recommend applying these generator prompts and challenges based on your goals:

Option 1: Self-Practice - Use these as practice for yourself to develop your problem-solving skills, thinking on your toes, learning to manage your time and refining your workflow. You don’t need to show it in your portfolio but you can share it on social media and other places to get some feedback and get into the hang of doing projects and getting to know your own timing and process.

Option 2: UX Case Study Creation - Use these for your UX portfolio to create UX case studies . Give yourself a deadline, deliberately choose a project and document the process as you go. Be mindful of the projects you choose and make sure that they align with your own unique positioning as a designer and with the opportunities you want to attract.

Option 3: Whiteboard Challenge - Work on the prompts in 45 min sessions using a whiteboard like Figjam to show and tell your process. Record your screen so that you can replay it and share it with others for critique. This video could even be an incredible addition to your portfolio to showcase how you think and solve problems on the fly.

Option 4: Take-home Exercise - To simulate an interview take-home challenge or test, you can tackle a prompt or brief over the course of 8-10 hours.

Pros and Cons of Using UX Case Study Generators

There a few pros and cons about using case study generators that you should know about:

If you can do them, so can everyone else

Firstly, remember that if you have access to these design challenges and briefs so do all the other designers. That means that there is a good chance your work might end up looking similar to their work if you’re not careful. If you want to stand out, try customizing the prompts and challenges and adding your own unique spin.

Treat them as real UX projects

If you plan to feature these UX case studies in your portfolio, make sure to treat them as real UX projects; not just hypothetical exercises. Conduct actual research, analyze your findings and document your process. This will go a long way in helping you differentiate yourself from those that simply complete the challenge at face value.

Not consider real-world experience

Keep in mind that these generated UX case study projects and prompts are not considered 'real-world or ‘real- work experience’ by employers, but rather self-directed projects. They are a good first step for new UX designers to start practicing their problem solving skills on their own and refining their UX design process, but you'll have to go the extra mile if you want to use them in your portfolio to impress during interviews.  

Choose the right one

If you are looking to use these ideas as UX Case studies in your portfolio, I reccomend reading this article on how to choose which case studies you should do and how to Create a Magnetic UX Case Study that will actually get you noticed and hired.

Move into doing real projects

These projects are also no substitute for doing real-world projects such as things you design and build yourself, freelance jobs, client work or open-source projects. Generated prompts and challenges cannot introduce the ambiguity of business requirements, changing stakeholder needs and team dynamics that are most sought after in a hirable UX designer. So think of these as a stepping to help you jump into the real thing as soon as possible. Here are some examples of stellar UX/UI and Product Design portfolios that we love!

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UX Design Case Study: The What, How, and Why with Stellar Examples

19 September 2022

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes, it may manifest in the most vivid dreams. Other times, it may be that unique design around the corner. At Pepper Square, we’re always fishing for the next best thing in design, and we always keep our eyes open. Yes, even if it means staring at a puddle from an unflattering angle.

Since we live in the age of the internet, some things come easy to us. We don’t have to look far to find some great sources of inspiration, especially for design. All great design begins by placing the user at the heart of the problem and gradually eliminating pain points.

Case studies are one of the best ways to understand the planning, strategizing, designing, and development process. We’ll look at a few UX design examples and elaborate on our favorite ones, so you don’t have to.

What are UX Case Studies?

Think of it this way. It’s a summary (but a detailed one) of everything that has gone into the design process and how it delivered value. UX case studies offer vital insights about the project and highlight the designer’s skillset beyond designing and design thinking.

But UX case studies are different than your typical case studies. Following Aristotle’s storytelling elements may be the only thing you need to build a case study for the latter. By leveraging his storytelling style, you already have a generous dose of material, to begin with.

For instance, although the “plot, character, and theme” may not exactly be present in these specific avatars , you already have a fair idea of where to begin. The other elements follow.

The Importance of a UX Case Study

• A way to build trust

UX case studies showcase an agency’s past work and provide more than just an idea to prospective clients. It’s an in-depth presentation of a company’s portfolio. Since such information is readily available, it is also a form of building trust.

For it is human nature. Clients will want to work with companies that provide the right information and are transparent. Case studies are a way of doing so.

• A showcase of skills

Case studies highlight problems, solutions, and how one got to that solutions. With the latter, you enter the area of skills where agencies can show their might. This is another important parameter that clients use to understand whether a particular agency can solve their problems.

This is also one of the main reasons why UI/UX design agencies have a section for UX case studies in their website.

• Future references

Since case studies are essentially a record of all that has been done for a particular project, it easily becomes a repository for the future. Interns or other newly-joined members can easily go through these case studies to know more about the agency’s work.

This helps in a smoother transition of work and ensures that everyone at an agency is on board with the way they do things.

How to Build a UX Case Study?

Introducing an arc to the story for UX case studies will provide order and structure. Divide the case study into three parts with a designated introduction, middle, and conclusion.

Remember that no one has the time anymore. So, keep it crisp and hit readers with data that matters.

Step 1 – Introduction

The introduction should ideally encapsulate the main challenges and a problem statement. Then, follow it up with the solution you offered and your role in tackling the problem. It should not be more than five lines as it is essentially your elevator pitch.

At this stage, it’s also a good idea to share an outline of your approach and hint at the final deliverables.

Step 2 – Talk about the obstacles

Outline the problems and constraints you faced and explain your specific design thinking process. Briefly illustrate your research and progress leading to the next steps and, ultimately, the end goal.

Step 3 – The project’s summit

Keep the reader hooked on how you achieved your big goal. Talk about your story’s apex at this stage and knit a tight narrative to highlight the most significant bits.

Step 4 – Guiding factors

You must show how you combined extensive research and user insights to devise a plan and solution. Now is an excellent time to shed light on the ideas and decisions that led to your project’s final iterations.

Step 5 – Conclusion

The final stage of the case study should showcase the results and the resolution. Highlight how your solution helped reach or exceed a business-oriented goal or how you helped deliver value to the client with your solution.

Remember that not all UX case studies follow the five-pronged approach. You may also condense it to fewer steps if you wish, but the crux must remain the same.

What to Include in Your Case Study

UX Writing – it goes without saying that a UX case study should include all hallmarks of UX writing. It is the most basic step that users will look into as it helps them understand a point or two. UX writing also has the knack of grabbing one’s attention as it conveys the important points effortlessly.

Wireframes – a detailed case study will have a wireframe that showcases all relevant information and helps the user learn more about the whole structure. Based on the requirement, you can include a specific wireframe and depending upon the clarity needed, you can choose between the types of wireframes.

User Testing – always include results from user testing including feedback as it keeps the case study engaging and shows the different lengths you went to in order to make things work. As a parameter, user testing also helps clients understand how open you are towards feedback.

User Research – if the case study involves studying specific users or looking into a target group, you need to include results from the same. Considering the fact that user research is important, one does not need more than a single reason to have it in their case study.

Essential design aspects – a UX case study needs to include the right design aspects that in turn can drive home the more important points of the project. These aspects form a direction for the case study and take things towards a favorable outcome.

Common Mistakes that You Should Avoid

A UX case study without mistakes is what everyone wishes to see. It needs to be presentable and unique, which indirectly means that errors should be cut to a minimum or no errors at all. So to help you out, here are some common mistakes that you need to avoid while writing your UX case study.

• Forgetting the overall experience

Focusing only on the user interface and forgetting the overall objective of experience is a common mistake that should not reflect on your UX case study. Since design is not only about the UI, you need to pay attention to what matters and looking at a number of UX case study examples will tell you the same.

• Missing out on a structure

The modern approach to storytelling does include a structure even though some case studies don’t directly showcase the same. Every case study brings in a specific plan, approach and thus follows a structure that you need to continue following.

Missing out on these points can eliminate the purpose of your case study and even fail to highlight the key areas of focus.

• Failing to include the elements of storytelling

You don’t want to miss out on the elements of storytelling because you want your readers to stay focused and read what you are presenting. As mentioned before, following Aristotle’s storytelling elements is about capturing what is most important for a UX case study.

Hence include these elements and take your case study to a whole new level.

• Forgetting to highlight what’s important

Every UX case study has important points that describe how you came to a solution and the steps that you followed to do so. These points may or may not be complex but they need to enter the mind of a human who’s attention span lasts for 7 seconds.

Thus it is a challenge to ensure that the process of creating a case study is engaging. Highlighting the most significant points is one thing, making sure the reader wants to read it is another ball-game altogether. It is important to get creative with how you present your story.

• Not doing a thorough checkup

From punctuation errors to spelling mistakes and more, a case study could be filled with a ton of errors. So a thorough check up along with multiple readings is important before putting out your case study. Only through constant checkups can you reduce any errors that may exist.

Here’s how Pepper Square showcased its UX case studies for three leading brands and delivered exceptional solutions.

Pepper Square UX Case Study Examples

• National Fitness Campaign (NFC)

To transform the way the world views outdoor exercise and make exercising accessible and free for all, NFC tasked Pepper Square to bring free fitness to over 1,000 cities across the US by 2021. It’s a great example of UX design meets the physical world.

Pepper Square’s Solution?

• Redesign the existing mobile app
• Increase user engagement at local fitness courts
• Gamify the experience for users
• Introduce exciting fitness challenges

The Value Delivered?

Among other things, Pepper Square was able to make the refashioned app live in 3 weeks, and app downloads increased by 40% after the fresh release.

Read the entire case study here .

• Sun Mobility

Sun Mobility tasked Pepper Square to bring mass adoption of electric vehicles to reimagine the future of urban transportation.

Pepper Square created multiple touchpoint experiences for Sun Mobility that would engage OEMs, fleet operators, and end customers to transition seamlessly to new-age transportation.

One of the most crucial highlights was that the mobile app helped drivers in better decision-making by leveraging intelligent data. Promotional collaterals for Auto Expo 2018 included corporate presentations, brochures, kiosks, stickers, and cap designs that garnered buzz and traffic to the website.

Read the full case study here .

To build a productivity app for mothers, two entrepreneurs shared their dream with Pepper Square to create an app to help multi-tasking mothers prioritize their ‘me-time.’

Pepper Square created an ‘exclusive for mothers’ end-to-end productivity app. The app helps mothers convert their elusive free time into ‘me-time’ to accomplish things that are important to them. It’s the ultimate organizer/planner that every mother needs.

With uniquely designed lists, notes, and a calendar, users of the app found the app beautiful and intuitive. Furthermore, Pepper Square enhanced the app experience with valuable feedback and learnings with iterative usability testing at the beta stage with real users. Here is a detailed look into our case study with Mamma Miya .

We were tasked to help a client market their new food product, digital cheese blast and promote the same.

Pepper Square’s Solution? Pepper Square created a fun new platform where users could cheese-blast themselves with the latest flavors by Old El Paso and also share these pictures on social media. The option to directly share these pictures was installed to promote virality.

The Value Delivered? The campaign was a success as it had generated 8 million impressions with the social app and increased Twitter conversations by 1000%. With an exclusive story on the website, media highlighted Ketchum as a frontrunner in leveraging the digital space.

Audience showed support for the interactive concept by sharing images on social media, thus marking a successful project and a definite case study. Learn more about the case study, here .

Pepper Square’s approach to UX case studies is simple. Introduce the problem. Emphasize the solution. Put a spotlight on the value delivered with a well-crafted UX problem statement .

Here are a few other examples of the best UX case studies you can seek inspiration from.

• How HubSpot Redesigned Their Website – A Case Study

Here’s one of the best examples of a website redesign case study . Led by UX designer Austin Knight, the website redesign project was supported by three other team members, a marketing manager, a visual designer, and a developer. The supplement team included copywriting, product positioning, and technical development members.

With session recordings, qualitative research, and multivariate testing of minor changes in the first stage, Knight could devise a foolproof strategy to forge forward. By following the five steps of design thinking, HubSpot was able to revamp its website and make it a “data-informed UX success.”

• How to Live a Healthier Life with Bee Better – A Case Study

The makers are Bee Better understood one thing: everyone wants to be better and live healthier lives. But most complain that they are pressed for time. Another problem people face is that when they try to pick up a good new habit, they only find the will to keep at it for merely a week. It’s because they aren’t motivated enough. After all, habit development is a tedious process.

Busy Bee offered the ideal solution by making the process of habit-building fun and interactive. By engaging the user with friends and family, the app offers additional encouragement and tracks progress.

• Linkedin Recruiter Tool by Evelynma – A Case Study

With current recruiting tools making it hard for platforms like Linkedin to receive accurate information, UX designer Evelyn Ma Rasmussen looked to change things. Her goal was to also increase the likelihood of recruiters getting a positive response.

Rasmussen followed a detailed process of collecting information from candidates, crafting a user journey, and creating personas that in turn helped her visualize design. The outcome helped Linkedin engage with users and connect to the right candidates in order to receive a positive response.

• Giving customers exactly what they need – Cover Girl’s Case Study

Imagine a virtual makeup store where you can try out every shade of lipstick or see how a smokey eye looks on you. Now, you don’t have to imagine that anymore. In collaboration with AR company Holition, CoverGirl introduced a virtual makeup studio.

An instantly shoppable makeup experience, it set out to solve three main problems users complained about:

• Lack of time
• Distance from a physical location, and
• Removing makeup on the go

These were also the reasons why many preferred online shopping. But online shopping has its flaws too. There is no way to visualize how a particular shade would look on different skin types and textures. The virtual makeup studio took heed to user problems and found a revolutionary solution.

Existing and prospective clients always look for fresh ideas to elevate their brands and business. So, showcasing case studies to them is a great way to open more doors for further opportunities. It’s a window or a sneak peek at your team’s capabilities and what you can achieve with your set of expertise in UX project ideas .

Case studies are also a preview of your approach and your design thinking pattern. Besides this, UX case studies provide vital insights to recruiters. It helps weave a story of the task and how you navigated tricky waters. When done correctly, it helps maximize your appeal as a designer.

Alka is the Chief Creative Officer at Pepper Square. She has defined the user experience for some of the finest global brands over the last eight years.

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